An Ancient Well

By the time Lin Xiao hurried back to Poplar Village, it was already past midnight.

There was not a soul in Poplar Village, but a faint glow of fire could be seen in the wilderness outside.

Within the area where Lin Xiao had previously set up a formation, the villagers were all sleeping soundly, huddled together inside the makeshift thatched shelters they had built.

Two small fires burned in front of the shelters. A young, strong villager sat before one of them, nodding off.

Two small medicine stoves stood nearby as well, though no medicine was being boiled in them at the moment.

Fang Tuantuan had to patrol the area and keep an eye on the patients’ conditions, while also glancing over at the villager dozing beside the fire from time to time. That way, if he accidentally plunged headfirst into the flames, it could rush over and drag him away in time.

This was the scene Lin Xiao saw when he returned.

The Allied Army had said they would send people over, but anyone could tell that an organization made up of multiple factions would never be particularly efficient.

The fact that they had managed to join forces and successfully overthrow the former imperial family of the Huanyou Kingdom in such a short time was already completely unexpected.

As a result, the villagers of Poplar Village still had no one to take over their care for the time being.

Lin Xiao had no intention of disturbing the villagers’ sleep. Rather than walk over, he released his aura once he had drawn close enough.

Fang Tuantuan had just finished making a round of its patrol and was about to drag away the villager sitting beside the fire, whose hair was almost being licked by the flames, when it suddenly sensed something. It hurriedly raised its head and looked in a certain direction.

A familiar figure stood quietly in the open wilderness.

Seeing that it was indeed Lin Xiao, Fang Tuantuan leaped toward him.

An insulating barrier had already been set up around the area.

Over the past year or so, with the entire Lingxian Sect constantly feeding it, Fang Tuantuan had successfully gone from having a slender figure to becoming more than half a ball. Its cheeks had filled out as well, making its head and body blend seamlessly together without even a neck remaining.

Lin Xiao squatted down and stroked the top of its head, then scratched beneath its chin with his index finger. Fang Tuantuan narrowed its eyes in comfort and began to purr.

Then he asked softly, “Tuantuan, how have things been on your end these past two days?”

“Meow~” No problem at all!

Lin Xiao swept his divine sense over the villagers and found that their condition had improved considerably compared to before.

Their complexions had recovered, their breathing was steady, and even the eyeballs that had nearly bulged out of their sockets had retreated somewhat…

In short, they were all steadily recovering.

Fang Tuantuan then meowed repeatedly as it reported the villagers’ specific conditions over the past two days.

“You’ve worked hard.” Lin Xiao stroked the cat with one hand while taking out a bag of dried fish and opening it in front of Tuantuan.

“Meow!”

Fang Tuantuan happily gobbled them down.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao approached Poplar Village. He walked around its outskirts, surveying the area as he pondered.

Although the villagers had temporarily left the village because of their illness, this was not a long-term solution.

Not to mention their attachment to the place where they had been born and raised, the stark reality that every household in Poplar Village was desperately poor meant they simply could not afford to move elsewhere and settle down again.

Therefore, if possible, Lin Xiao still wanted to help them resolve the problems plaguing this place.

Although the matter had already been handed over to the Allied Army, judging by the attitudes of the two Allied Army leaders he had encountered before—Venerable Zhiyu and Venerable Xunfang—he did not hold out much hope for how seriously the Allied Army would take the matter.

If only there were some way to seal this aura that endangered mortals…

He opened his private inventory and rummaged through it, hoping to find something that might be useful.

He found nothing of value, but his gaze suddenly came to rest on a formation stone he had previously obtained from Wei Hai.

If he remembered correctly, the system had said that this was the formation stone of a Great Yin Sealing Formation.

He simply had no idea what kind of sealing formation this so-called Great Yin Sealing Formation was…

As he thought about it, he took out the formation stone and examined it in his hand.

Unexpectedly, the moment Lin Xiao raised the formation stone before his eyes, it began to hum. The stone’s body started vibrating at an extremely high frequency, making his fingers tingle.

The humming vibration traveled from the outside inward and brushed against the surface of his divine sense. Suddenly, an extremely faint sensation rose within his heart.

Lin Xiao was greatly surprised and immediately tried to investigate what the sensation was.

However, the feeling was so faint that the moment he moved, it vanished.

He had no choice but to close his eyes and calm his mind, carefully sensing it.

Before long, that extremely faint sensation appeared in his heart once more.

With his eyes closed, he carefully distinguished and experienced it for quite some time before finally determining that the sensation was coming from the due south within the village!

Lin Xiao immediately opened his eyes, gripped the formation stone, and dashed into Poplar Village.

The farther in he went, the stronger the faint sensation became. Although it remained incredibly weak overall, at least it no longer disappeared so easily.

Following its direction, he went straight into the depths of the village, all the way to an old well.

The well appeared to have existed for many years.

The stone slabs surrounding it had been worn smooth and lustrous, like black jade.

The rim of the well bore traces of countless repairs, old marks layered over newer ones.

The water level inside was not particularly high, but the well water looked exceptionally clear. Even Lin Xiao, who had access to spring water nourished by a spirit vein at home, could not help wanting to scoop up a handful and taste it.

However, before he could act on the impulse, the formation stone in his hand suddenly began humming violently, producing a sharp, piercing sound.

The space around him twisted.

Then Lin Xiao suddenly felt an enormous suction force dragging him downward.

When he came back to his senses, he found himself in a completely enclosed space measuring less than ten square meters.

The place was dim. A faintly glowing orb of light at the very center was the only source of illumination.

Lin Xiao looked around, only to discover that the orb was not merely the sole source of light in this space—it was also the only object within it.

That was not entirely accurate.

Apart from the orb, there was also a stream of water flowing down one wall.

He could not tell where it was going, nor could he see its source.

But those details seemed secondary. What truly aroused his curiosity was the faint light at the center.

He instinctively swept it with his divine sense, only to discover that, just like the imperial seal he had found before, the orb completely resisted his divine sense. He could not penetrate it or inspect what lay within.

The only difference was that this orb was not as bright as the imperial seal had been before being activated by the former emperor.

Lin Xiao stepped forward and discovered that he could actually see inside the orb with his naked eyes.

However, the layer of light on the outside made the contents difficult to see clearly.

After observing it carefully for a while, he raised the formation stone in his hand and held it beside the orb for comparison.

It looked rather similar…

Combining that with the circumstances under which he had found the ancient well and been drawn inside, he could reasonably conclude that the object within this orb was very likely something of the same nature as the formation stone in his hand.